A Concession Agreement was signed today for completing the 6.5 km long Z-Morh tunnel in J&K in the presence of Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari. MoS Road Transport & Highways Gen (Retd) Dr V K Singh, Secretary Road Transport & Highways Shri Sanjiv Ranjan, and other senior officers from the Ministry and NHIDCL were present on the occasion.

Shri Keshav Kumar Pathak, MD-NHIDCL exchanging agreement documents with Shri Sista Prasad, Executice Vice President of the concessionaire for construction of Z-Morh Tunnel in J&K in the presence of Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari, MoS Road Transport & Highways Gen (Retd) Dr V K Singh and Secretary Road Transport & Highways Shri Sanjiv Ranjan in New Delhi today.

The project includes construction, operation and maintenance of the tunnel with approaches on NH-1 at Srinagar-Sonmarg-Gumri Road from 61 km to 89.30 km on Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) Annuity basis.

The 2-lane bi-directional tunnel with parallel escape tunnel will be completed in 3.5 years at a cost of Rs 2378.76 Crore. The concessionaire has been awarded DLP Period /Operation & Maintenance Period of 15 years from the Completion Date. The earlier contract is being foreclosed in terms of Ministry ‘Guidelines Principles for Resolution of Stuck National Highway Projects’ dated 09.03.2019.

Bids for the project were re-invited on 24.06.2019 with a TPC of Rs. 2378.76 Cr on BOT (Annuity) basis. Four bids were received, and were opened on 29.08.2019. After receiving necessary administrative approval and financial sanction, the project award was sanctioned by the Ministry on 17.12.2019. The LoA for the project was subsequently issued on 19.12.2019 to the M/s APCO Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd.

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RCJ/MS